British Craft Trade Fair 2015

April 19, 2015

This time last week I’d just been treated to a very welcome Sunday dinner at my brother’s house in Otley after a busy first day at the British Craft Trade Fair (BCTF) in Harrogate. This was my second year exhibiting BCTF, which is in its 21st year. It is an amazing showcase of British craft, a truly inspiring place to exhibit and it’s a great place to network with other makers.

There’s a lot to consider in the run up to the trade fair: planning the space (lots of graph paper), working out the best way to display the work, making plinths and discovering your inner wood working skills, designing and making new lines of work that you want to launch, researching galleries and shops to send invites to and designing and ordering new marketing material to name just a few. And of course making, making, making! My little kiln has been on non-stop for over a month and I’ve been keeping my fingers crossed it didn’t break down (kilns have a nasty habit of knowing the precise worst moment to stop working).

Last Saturday the car was full to the brim with boxes of work, plinths, lighting, step ladders and a hundred and one other things that I might just need to put up my display. Oh, and my mum of course! (It’s always good to have another pair of hands and opinion). My space was 1m by 2m in the same spot as last year, just near the main reception, and it took about 4 hours to finish the display, with a constant supply of coffee and cake (thanks mum!) to get me through. The graph paper planning worked! I got everything in, and I was very pleased with how it looked, all those lists of ‘what I would do differently’ I’d made last year had paid off.

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were busy days talking to galleries and shops about my work. This was the first time I had displayed my wrap pots at BCTF and I had new bowls and wall plaques made in the same style on display too. I’m very pleased with the response I had to my ceramic jewellery and my new work, I’m going to be a busy bee fulfilling the orders. The gallery and shop owners I spoke to were lovely, really supportive and enthusiastic, and I look forward to working with them through the year. I will be introducing a stockists list on my website very soon and will be updating it as work goes winging off all over the UK in the next month. Keep an eye on it for a stockist near you!

So all in all I had a great BCTF and that Sunday dinner was just the start of three days of being thoroughly looked after my brother and his family… I wonder if they will mind if I stay again next year?